Projecting forward into the next 50 years, I find myself thinking about threats to our seaplane community. While keeping waterways open, partnering on solutions to aquatic invasive species, and countering rising insurance premiums with targeted safety initiatives have been the focus of the organization for a good while, one that has recently hit close to home in the state of Maine has been the closure of two private seaplane bases that provided essential services to straight-float aircraft. Fuel, maintenance including seasonal float changeover, and training have been deeply impacted by the closure of Twitchell's in Turner and Lucky Landing outside Bangor. As communities expand, waterfront property escalates in price and the seaplane base property become extremely valuable. Be it waterfront homes or other commercial development, it becomes extremely expensive to go toe- to-toe in a bidding war with a developer.
展开▼
